Friday, February 4, 2011

Bing to contribute - World IPv6 Day

Microsoft's search engine will be one of the major Web sites offered in a synchronized effort to iron out troubles moving to a vastly more spacious Internet based on the next IPv6 standard.

"On June 8, we will allow world-wide IPv6 connectivity to Bing.com, for the purposes of a one-day test," said Bing program manager Kevin Boske. "Consumers with IPv6 Internet capabilities will mechanically access this new method of connectivity. This require both a device that supports IPv6 (like a Windows 7 PC), and hold from your Internet provider."

IPv6, or Internet Protocol version 6, comes with 340 trillion Internet addresses, a lot more than the 4.3 billion permited by the current IPv4. Moving to IPv6 is a difficult, global event that ultimately involves any devices that connect to to the Internet.

Its urgency is hastened by the fact that the past, the Internet's central overseers handed out the last group of IPv4 addresses. It'll be months before that IPv4 exhaustion cascades down to the level of business that need to lease those addresses eternally, but the clock now is ticking.

Some companies such as Facebook and Google previously suggest IPv6 access to their services, but typically only with IPv6-specific domains such as ipv6.google.com. On World IPv6 Day, the major domains will be offered over IPv6, too.